By Charlie Devereux
MADRID (Reuters) -Spain’s conservative People’s Party said on Monday it believed it could break a political deadlock and form a government after the hard-right Vox hinted it will not insist on being part of a coalition in exchange for its support.
Vox on Sunday said its 33 lawmakers would “support a majority” for the right-wing bloc in the Spanish parliament’s lower house to stop the Socialists (PSOE) making pacts with Catalan and Basque separatists and forging what the hard-right party has described as “a government of national destruction”.
The gesture will clear the way for other minor parties that objected to Vox’s involvement to support the PP in an investiture vote, PP’s general coordinator Elias Bendodo said.
“The rules of the game have changed and therefore the parties which had previously taken up positions (now face) different circumstances,” Bendodo told Radio COPE on Monday.
But Bendodo’s claim was swiftly rebutted by the Basque Nationalist Party (PNV), which said on the social media platform X that its position had not changed. The PNV has said it would not negotiate with the PP to form a government involving Vox.
Spain’s election last month ended in a stalemate with neither right-wing nor left-wing blocs winning enough seats for a majority.
The PP and Vox, seen as potential coalition partners during the campaign, earned a combined 170 seats in the 350-seat lower house, falling short of the 176 lawmakers needed to secure a parliamentary majority.
Since it won the most seats, Spain´s King Felipe VI is expected to give the PP the first stab at forming a government when parliament is convened on Aug. 17.
The PNV, which has five seats, has previously supported the PP, most notably in when 2018 it allowed former Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy´s minority government to get the budget approved.
But the party has in recent years developed closer ties with the Socialists (PSOE), forming coalitions in several municipalities in the Basque Country.
The PP may also need to secure support from Coalicion Canaria, which has one seat and has said it could support either bloc, though not one ushering Vox into government.
Vox did not respond to a Reuters request to clarify its statement. But a party source said it meant it would not seek cabinet positions in exchange for parliamentary support, nor would it block support for the PP from the PNV which it has opposed in the past because of its policies promoting Basque language and culture.
Vox’s gesture to set aside its ambitions to form part of a coalition government was agreed in “secret meetings” with the PP, Isabel Rodriguez, spokesperson for the acting Socialist government, said in a video distributed to media.
Rodriguez said Vox had agreed to set aside its ambitions in return for pledges from the PP on dialling down climate change action and policies on gender violence and LGBT rights.
The PSOE, which together with ally Sumar won 152 seats, also have a route to power, but it will require difficult negotiations with Catalan separatists including the hardline Junts which says it will want a fresh vote on independence in return.
(Additional reporting by David Latona and Aislinn Laing; Editing by Christina Fincher and Conor Humphries)
